CHANUTE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL

CES Teacher, Ariel Beam, Named Winner for Kansas Horizon Award

Posted Date: 01/09/2017

It is an honor for CES to be able to announce that 1st grade teacher Ariel Beam, has been chosen as a Horizon award winner by the state department of education. Ariel was one of over a thousand nominees for the award and was 1 of 32 winners.

The Kansas Horizon Award Program, sponsored by the Kansas State Department of Education, identifies and recognizes representatives of excellent teaching in the elementary and secondary classrooms of the state. The mission of the program is . . . To recognize exemplary first-year teachers who perform in a way that distinguishes them as outstanding.

What a great accomplishment. We are very fortunate to have Ariel on staff at CES. Please help us to congratulate her on this achievement. Great job Ariel.

CES professional among state’s list of ‘outstanding’ first-year teachers

The way Ariel Beam develops relationships with her first graders is one trait that figured into her being named a Horizon Award winner by the state Dept. of Education. The first grade teacher at Chanute Elementary was recognized Monday at the USD 413 Board of Education meeting for being one of 16 “exemplary” first-year teachers in Kansas.

Each school district was allowed to nominate one elementary and one secondary classroom teacher for the Kansas Horizon Award Program. The program recognizes exemplary first-year teachers in the elementary and secondary classrooms of the state who perform in a way that distinguishes them as outstanding.

“(Ariel) has done a great job welcoming all students into her room and has even planned a time within her centers every day to work one-on-one with a student with special needs. It is this caring attitude and willingness to continually work to meet the needs of each student that set her apart and makes her very qualified and deserving of this great honor,” said CES Assistant Principal Matt Koester.

Motivating students is extremely important to her.

“I want all of them to want to come to school every day,” Beam said. “One thing that I do is simply make my content as interesting as possible. We do projects, activities, and read books that they are interested in. The more connections I can make with their personal lives, the more motivated they are to learn and retain the content as well.”

Ariel fits the description of a “person you say was born to be a teacher,” Koester added.

“What truly sets Ariel apart from most new teachers is her great understanding and effective implementation of classroom management,” he said. “Most new teachers do not come into the classroom with the composure and knowledge of classroom management that Ariel did. She has been very open to trying new things in her classroom and really learn about the teaching and learning process.”

Beam said she likes everything about first grade and her job, but she really enjoys the students.

“Every day I get to come to school where children are waiting to see me with smiles on their faces, (who) are ready to tell me a story or something that happened, and want to give me a hug,” she said. “They make each and every day worth it.”

Her advice to other new teachers is to focus on the positive, take one day at a time, and “remember why you decided to get into the profession.”

Beam will be recognized along with the other elementary and secondary winners at a special ceremony during the 2017 Kansas State Educators Conference in Topeka on Feb. 9-10.